Democrats have been pushing to increase the minimum wage to $8.50 in 2013. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, has a bill that would increase the minimum wage to $8.50 in 2013 and with future increases tied to the rate of inflation.

Silver said the increase in the minimum wage would help more than 1 million New Yorkers.

“Today’s Quinnipiac poll is further evidence New Yorkers agree that it is time to raise the state’s minimum wage,” Silver said in a statement. “A significant percentage of respondents to the latest poll – Democratic, Republican and independent voters alike – support increasing the minimum wage above the current $7.25 per hour. The message is clear, this is a matter of dignity. People who work full time should not be living in poverty.”

Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, wrote to Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Nassau County, asking him to support a minimum-wage increase. The letter is below.

Skelos hasn’t ruled it out, but has warned about the impact it would have on businesses.

Mike Durant, director of the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said in a statement that a wage increase would hurt companies. He also knocked Sampson, saying the state was hurt when Senate Democrats held the majority in 2009 and 2010.

“Raising the minimum wage will only close the door on people that are looking for work and for those employed out of jobs they desperately need,” Durant said.

Among those who supported raising the minimum wage, 37 percent of voters supported raising it to $8.50 per hour, the poll found. Fifty-two percent supported an even higher minimum wage; 8 percent wanted it less than $8.50 an hour.Fifty-one percent of voters said they did not believe small businesses would not lower staff if the minimum wage were increased, compared to 41 percent who did.